Acadian French


Acadian French is a variety of French spoken by Acadians, mostly in the region of Acadia, Canada. Acadian French has seven regional accents, including Chiac and Brayon.

Phonology

Since there was relatively little linguistic contact with France from the late 18th century to the 20th century, Acadian French retained features that died out during the French standardization efforts of the 19th century such as these:
  • The phoneme, Acadian French has retained an alveolar trill or an alveolar flap, but modern speakers pronounce it as in Parisian French: rouge can be pronounced, or.
  • In nonstandard Acadian French, the third-person plural ending of verbs ‹-ont›, such as ils mangeont , is still pronounced, unlike standard French ils mangent / or, the ‹e› can be pronounced or not, but ‹-nt› is always silent.
According to Wiesmath, some characteristics of Acadian are:
  • The verbal ending -ont in the third person plural
  • Palatalization of and to and, respectively
  • A feature called l'ouisme where bonne is pronounced
These features typically occur in the speech of older people.
Many aspects of Acadian French are still common in rural areas in the South West of France. Speakers of Metropolitan French and even of other Canadian varieties of French sometimes have difficulty understanding Acadian French. Within North America, its closest relative is Louisiana French spoken in Southern Louisiana since both were born out of the same population that were affected during the Expulsion of the Acadians.
See also Chiac, a variety with strong English influence, and St. Marys Bay French, a distinct variety of Acadian French spoken around Clare, Tusket, Nova Scotia and also Moncton, New Brunswick.

Palatalization

not to be confused with affrication typical of Quebec French.
  • and are commonly replaced by before a front vowel. For example, quel, queue, cuillère and quelqu'un are usually pronounced tchel, tcheue, tchuillère and tchelqu'un. Tiens is pronounced tchin.
  • and often become before a front vowel. For example, bon dieu and gueule become and in informal Acadian French. Braguette becomes.

    Metathesis

is quite common. For example, mercredi is mercordi, and pauvreté is pauveurté. Je is frequently pronounced euj and Le is frequently pronounced eul.
In words, "re" is often pronounced "er". For instance :
  • erçu for "reçu", ertourner for "retourner", erpas for "repas", ergret for "regret", s'entertenir for "s'entretenir".

    Vowels

  • Acadian French has maintained phonemic distinctions between and, and, and, and.
  • In informal speech, the vowel is realized as : pas → and bras →, etc.
  • The short is realized as and it is the same as Parisian French.
  • is open to or closed to, it depends on the region: fête → or and caisse → or, etc.
  • The ⟨oi⟩ spelling has different pronunciations. Old speakers pronounce roi , because the traditional Parisian pronunciation was like. But in modern standard Acadian French, it is pronounced. Even where there is no circumflex, there are some words which are phonemically pronounced and the phoneme is pronounced as in formal speech but in informal speech: trois or and noix or. The ⟨oî⟩ spelling is phonemically, but old speakers pronounce it, while modern speakers pronounce it as in Quebec French: boîte or and croître or, etc.

    Elision of final consonants

  • Consonant clusters finishing a word are reduced, often losing altogether the last or two last consonants in informal speech: table → and livre →, etc.

    Vocabulary and grammar

Yves Cormier's Dictionnaire du français acadien includes the majority of Acadian regionalisms. From a syntactic point of view, a major feature is the use of je for the first-person singular and plural; the same phenomenon takes place with i for the third persons. Acadian still differentiates the vous form from the tu form.
The following words and expressions are most commonly restricted to Acadian French south of the Miramichi River, but some are also used north of the Miramichi River and in Quebec French or Joual for the Montreal version of Quebec French. The Miramichi line is an isogloss separating South Acadian from the Canadian French dialects to the north, North Acadian, Brayon and Quebec French. South Acadian typically has morphosyntactic features such as ... that distinguishes it from dialects to the north or elsewhere in the Americas such as Cajun French, Saint-Barthélemy French or Métis French that have . Geddes, the oldest authority on any variety of French spoken in Northern Acadia, records of the morphosyntactic characteristics of "true" Acadian spoken in the South and adjacent islands to the West.
Some examples of "true" Acadian French are:
  • achaler: 'to bother'
  • ajeuve: 'a while ago'
  • amanchure: 'thing, thingy, also the way things join together: the joint or union of two things'
  • amarrer: 'to tie'
  • amoureux: 'burdock'
  • asteur: 'now'
  • attoquer: 'to lean'
  • atentot: 'earlier'
  • avoir de la misère: 'to have difficulty'
  • bailler: 'to give'
  • baratte: 'a piece of machinery or tool of sorts that no longer works properly', e.g. "My car is a lemon so it is a baratte"
  • batterie: 'the central passage through a barn flanked by two storage bays adjacent to the eaves'.
  • besson: 'twin'
  • boloxer: 'to confuse, disrupt, unsettle'
  • Bonhomme Sept-heures: 'a fearful character of fairy tales who would visit unpleasant deeds upon young children if they did not go to bed at the designated hour'.
  • bord: l'autre bord meaning 'the other side ; changer de bord meaning 'changing sides '; virer de bord meaning 'turning back or retracing one's steps'.
  • boucane: 'smoke, steam'
  • bouchure: 'fence'
  • brâiller: 'to cry, weep'
  • brogane: 'work shoe, old or used shoe'
  • brosse: 'drinking binge'
  • caler: 'to sink'
  • char: 'car'
  • chassis: 'window'
  • chavirer: 'to go crazy'
  • chu: 'I am'
  • cosses: 'peas, green beans'
  • cossé: 'what, or asking for information specifying something'.
  • cotchiner: 'to cheat'
  • coude: 'ship's knees' that are a distinctive and unusual structural feature of early Acadian houses.
  • Djâbe: 'Devil'
  • de service: 'proper, properly'
  • èchell: 'stairway'
  • ej: 'I'
  • élan: 'moment, while'
  • erj: 'and I'
  • espèrer: 'to wait; say welcome, to invite'
  • faire zire: 'to gross out'
  • farlaque: 'loose, wild, of easy virtue'
  • fournaise: 'a wood stove, oven'
  • frette: 'cold'
  • fricot: 'traditional Acadian stew prepared with chicken, potatoes, onions, carrots, dumplings, and seasoned with savoury'
  • garrocher: 'to throw, chuck'
  • le grand mènage: 'spring cleaning', often more comprehensive than in other cultures.
  • greer: 'to describe a woman's attire or decoration of a youngster's bicycle'.
  • grenier: 'a sleeping loft'.
  • se grouiller: 'to hurry, move'
  • hardes: 'clothes, clothing'
  • harrer : 'to beat, maltreat'
  • hucher: 'to cry out, scream'
  • icet: 'precisely here'
  • icitte: 'here; around here'
  • innocent: 'simple, foolish or stupid'
  • itou: 'also, too'
  • larguer: 'to let go of any object'
  • maganer: 'to overwork, wear out, tire, weaken'
  • mais que: 'when' + future tense
  • malin/maline: 'mean or angry'
  • marabout: 'to be irritated or angry'
  • mitan: 'middle, centre'
  • païen: 'hick, uneducated person, peasant'
  • palote: 'clumsy'
  • parker: 'park'
  • pâté chinois: 'a shepherd's pie casserole of mashed potatoes, ground meat, and corn'.
  • peste: 'bad odor'
  • pire à yaller/au pire à yaller: 'at worst'
  • plaise: 'plaice'
  • ploquer: 'having or showing determined courage'
  • ploye: 'buckwheat pancake', a tradition of Edmundston, New Brunswick, also common in Acadian communities in Maine
  • point, poinne: 'not', or a similar term of negation
  • pomme de pré: American cranberry
  • pot-en-pot: 'a meat pie of venison, rabbits, and game birds'.
  • poutine râpée: 'a ball made of grated potato with pork in the centre', a traditional Acadian dish
  • quai: 'a portable wheeled boating pier pulled out of the water to avoid ice damage'.
  • qu'ri: 'to fetch, go get'
  • rinque: 'just'
  • se haler: 'to hurry'
  • se badjeuler: 'to argue'
  • soira: 'see you later'
  • j'étions: 'we were'
  • ils étiont: 'they were'
  • taweille: 'Mikmaq woman, traditionally associated with medicine or Midewiwin'
  • tchequ'affaire, tchequ'chouse, quètchose, quotchose: 'something'
  • tcheque, tcheques: 'a few'
  • tête de violon: 'ostrich fern fiddlehead'
  • tétine-de-souris: 'slender glasswort, an edible green plant that grows in salt marshes'
  • tintamarre: 'din'
  • tourtiéres: 'meat pies', sometimes with potatoes.
  • valdrague: 'in disorder or confusion'
  • vaillant, vaillante: 'active, hard-working, brave'

    Numerals

  • In the Nova Scotian communities of Wedgeport and Pubnico, the numbers soixante-dix, quatre-vingts and quatre-vingt-dix are instead called septante, huitante and nonante respectively, a phenomenon also observed in Swiss French; Belgian French likewise uses septante and nonante but not huitante.
, a conservative dialect of Acadian French spoken in the St. Marys Bay, Nova Scotia region, is notable for maintaining use of the passé simple in spoken conversation. In most modern dialects of French, the tense is only used in formal writing and speech.